‘The View’ Cohosts Slam Caitlin Clark’s WNBA Salary: ‘Times Have Changed’
Caitlin Clark proved to be one of the most-watched sensations in all of sports this year, catapulting her Iowa Hawkeyes college team to the widely-watched national championships. After smashing scoring records in the NCAA, she was drafted as the number-one pick by the WNBA’s Indiana Fever. Her reported salary? She’ll make $76,535 for her first year, $78,066 for the second year, and $85,873 for the third. She also has a fourth-year option of $97,582. Whether she gets that rumored eight-figure endorsement deal with Nike or not, the difference between her salary and that of newly drafted NBA players is staggering and had many folks, up to and including President Joe Biden, speaking out against the pay disparity.
The ladies of The View had particularly strong insights on the matter since ABC Studios, where they work, is affiliated with ESPN, which recently elevated its broadcast coverage of the sport, through parent company Disney. Moreover, Sunny Hostin just so happens to be a member of the Board of Advocates for the Women’s National Basketball Players Association.
On Thursday’s edition of the show, it was Whoopi Goldberg who first took a stand against the reported players’ salaries and blamed ESPN directly for the lopsided salaries.
“The entire Fever payroll is $1.2 million. That is less than the minimum salary for a single NBA player with a year’s experience. So the women have the headlines, they have the fans, they have the viewers, when the hell are they going to get paid?” Goldberg said. “I don’t understand why if ESPN, who we work for as part of the Disney thing, they came in and swooped in and said, ‘Okay, we’re going to get we’re going to start to do this.’ I don’t understand why they didn’t say —m and I know that there’s a re-up coming — but they should have kissed this deal by taking care of all of the WNBA and given them enough money for a bump up because you know you have another deal to make. Sweeten that deal.”
Hostin then offered some slight defense of the inequality of pay and noted that some advances have already been made on the matter, but she ultimately agreed that things need to change.
“The collective bargaining agreement that was signed in 2020 gave the players a 53% increase in salary. Yes, that should tell you how bad it was. Now in context, though, they also got better travel arrangements because they were actually putting these very tall women in coach, they were sharing hotel rooms, they were riding these terrible buses. So we got we came a long way from where we were, but the bottom line is, the NBA has been in existence for 50 more years of the WNBA. They do bring in more money, they bring in … several billion dollars as opposed to several million dollars. But times have changed,” Hostin explained. “We know that this college basketball game was viewed by more people than all the men’s college basketball games.”
Then, Sara Haines jumped into the mix to offer some important details about the current revenue-sharing structure, noting, “Bigger than the overall revenue is that 40% of NBA league revenues go to player salaries in the NBA. In the WNBA, they only put forth 10%. So this isn’t about, ‘They make billions they make millions.'” Haines also pointed out Clark’s specific value to the organization, saying, “Fanatic sold more Clark jerseys in one hour after she was drafted than any other sport or player ever.”
While Hostin predicted the next contract arrangement will usher in a new era for the women of the WNBA, Goldberg adamantly suggested the contracts should change now, arguing, “But my feeling was, listen when you took them on, you should have said, ‘You know, we can’t pay everybody what they’re getting, but we’re gonna give you a jump.’ And I think you still have time to do that.”
Hostin then concluded the conversation by reminding everyone of the very real consequences of underpaying these players, noting, “This is why Brittney Griner was in Russia and got detained for so long, just remember that. She was detained because a Russian team paid her a million dollars a year. She just extended her contract with the WNBA for $150,000.”
The View, weekdays, ABC
